In Room 331, the party was just cooling down. Joshua Sims, his cousin and a girlfriend were preparing to head home to Minneapolis later that day after having spent a couple of weeks in the Chicago area.
“We were all just playing cards, drinking Jack, having a nightcap,” said Vicky West, a visitor from Louisiana, who was the fourth guest in the Schaumburg hotel room.
Sims had a .45 caliber pistol, which hardly seemed necessary at such a mellow moment. But it was loaded, just in case. Sims had prior arrests on weapons, drugs and assault charges back home. The memory of a beating he’d received in a suburban Minneapolis nightclub was still fresh, his sister said. If need be, he could get his hands on the pistol quickly.
One woman in the room had a record of prostitution arrests. Another would soon join them.
Prostitution has long been a sordid fact of life in the communities around O’Hare International Airport, according to vice investigators. The “Operation Room Service” crackdown by Cook County sheriff’s police in October netted dozens of prostitution arrests in the O’Hare area. Earlier this month, eight women were caught in a similar sting in a Schaumburg hotel.
The incidents show that prostitution continues to thrive, with hotel rendezvous frequently set up online. It’s a shadowy world often intertwined with drugs, violence and cyclic abuse. And the events about to unfold in Room 331 on March 16 underscored the dangers.
A little past 1 a.m., someone knocked on the door. It was Kristian Branch, who said she needed help.
Busted for prostitution in a nearby hotel four nights earlier, she had other trouble this night. She said through the door that she’d just gotten into a fight with her boyfriend, Mario Charles.
It wouldn’t be the first time he was accused of attacking her. In 2008, the Rockford resident was convicted of beating Branch after a neighbor encountered him pinning Branch against a parked car while punching her in the face.
West, 27, had mentored and occasionally sheltered Branch, sometimes renting rooms in the same northwest suburban hotels. The pair trusted each other. So when Branch asked in, West obliged.
In getting to know West, Branch had learned West had a monthly inheritance, and that this particular day likely was payday.
Five doors down, in another room, Branch’s boyfriend, Charles, waited with a loaded .25 caliber pistol. He knew about the inheritance money, too, prosecutors said.
Scarlet pasts
Branch and West both had brushes with the law.
West had been arrested for prostitution last June after an undercover police officer set up an appointment with her — she advertised on Craigslist as “Brittnee” — at a Schaumburg hotel. She told police she had been working out of two hotels for six weeks.
Branch, a resident of Elgin, had been arrested four nights earlier in the Schaumburg raid after pleading guilty to another prostitution charge that same day.
In addition to the sheriff’s stings, Schaumburg police have made seven prostitution arrests so far this year, on pace to double last year’s total of 17, said Sgt. John Nebl.
But it’s not just the selling of sex that worries police or advocates. The criminal element often associated with it is another major concern. And it was on display in Room 331 at the Homestead Suites Hotel the night of the party.
The events of that night “illustrate the criminal industry that often surrounds prostitution,” said Lynne Johnson, advocacy director for the group Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.
Ten minutes after Branch entered, there was another knock at the door. It was Charles, her boyfriend, dressed in a leather jacket and blue jeans. He said he needed to use the bathroom. They let him in.
Charles went into the bathroom — and came out with a gun drawn. He pointed the weapon at Sims and his cousin, authorities said.
He then ordered everyone on the floor, police said.
Sims, West and the two others in the room threw themselves down. Charles searched for money as Branch approached West. She began hitting West and demanding money, according to prosecutors.
Charles allegedly ordered those in the room to strip.
Sims reached under the bed and pulled out his own pistol, police said. Charles shot him, but Sims got off a fast shot. The sound of gunfire filled the room.
‘Always fighting’
It’s unknown how Charles and Branch first met, but their mothers and court records confirmed that their two years together were far from idyllic.
“They had a relationship where all they did was fight,” said Branch’s mother, Theresa DeLaRosa of Elgin. “Kristian is a drug addict and an alcoholic, and so is he. So they were always fighting. But they were all each other had.”
DeLaRosa wept as she recalled her daughter’s childhood in Elgin. Branch was one of seven children, and her father’s alcoholism forced DeLaRosa to support the family, leaving little time for her daughter, she said. When Branch was 14, she confided to a counselor that she had been sexually abused by a family friend at age 9, her mother said. DeLaRosa expressed guilt over not being there for her child.
“So many times, looking back, I see she was begging me for help, but I was never there,” she said. “I mean, you think you’re there, but … you know?”
A survey of 100 Chicago-area prostitutes in 2007 by DePaul University researchers indicated Branch shared much in common with other prostitutes. They’re more likely than not to be products of abusive homes, addicted to drugs or alcohol, victims of domestic assault and financially or emotionally dependent on a man.
Charles’ mother, Lillie, said she wasn’t aware of her son’s transgressions.
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But crack a court file on Charles and the charges start with his days as a teenager. He was convicted of 12 non-traffic-related offenses, from selling drugs to obstructing justice, including the 2008 domestic assault against Branch.
Branch has a long history, too, with convictions for robbery, retail theft, battery and assault in addition to prostitution.
Bullets fly
Charles and Sims exchanged at least five shots, police said.
Barely dressed, those with Sims hugged the floor as bullets flew overhead.
Amid the gunfire, Sims collapsed, shot in the lung and kidney.
Charles ran out of the room, spilling blood onto the light green hallway carpet. He’d been hit in the chest and abdomen. Losing his shoes as he fled, he left an unmistakable trail of red.
Branch ran out of Room 331 with him. Police found her in Room 319. That’s where they also found the pistol stuffed between the mattress and box spring.
Badly wounded, Charles managed to make it outside the hotel. He was bloody and still conscious, but dying. He and Sims were taken away in ambulances.
Branch and West were led from the hotel in handcuffs.
‘That’s not right’
Branch has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in what prosecutors described as a coordinated, premeditated robbery she planned with Charles. Her bail was set at $3 million.
Public defender Sal Spaccaferro argued at her bond hearing that “there was no robbery here,” saying “we feel the facts will be much different than the state’s evidence.”
Sims, who has not been charged with any crime, is in stable condition at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. Investigators haven’t been able to interview him. His cousin and girlfriend returned to Minneapolis and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Charles was buried last week in Rockford. His mother doesn’t agree with the decision to charge Branch with murder.
“They’re trying to flip the script on her, and that’s not right,” she said.
But Sims’ father, Joshua Sr., said the violence of the crime demands that Branch be held accountable.
“My son is in the hospital because someone tried to rob him and shot him,” he said. “My son wasn’t bothering anyone.”
Freelancer George Houde contributed.